This invention is related to apparatus for filtering industrial liquids through a filter medium mounted on a continuous conveyor, and more particularly to a filtering belt conveyor having upper and lower runs, means for removing larger debris as the upper run reverses course downwardly toward the lower run, a high pressure spray for removing smaller debris from the lower run remaining after removal of the larger debris, and a drag conveyor for removing the smaller debris from the sludge tank.
Some industrial processing liquids, such as used in metal-cutting machine cooling, process the liquid through a filtering medium so that the liquid can be recycled to the metal cutting process. Typically, the liquid is delivered to a tank having a filtering medium mounted on an elongated continuous belt conveyor. The liquid is passed through the filtering medium and then removed from the tank for recycling through the metal cutting process.
Examples of such prior art may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,089,143 issued Feb. 18, 1992 to Raymond L. Anderson, for Method of Filtering Industrial Liquids and Apparatus therefore; U.S. Pat. No. 3,706,378 issued Dec. 19, 1972 to John P. Markwick for Automatic Endless Belt Type Filter; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,242,205 issued Dec. 30, 1980 to Gene Hirs for Traveling Belt Filter.
In my co-pending patent application, I disclose a fluid filter belt conveyor comprising an elongated horizontal loop type filter belt enclosed within a drag chain conveyor. This arrangement permits the capacity of the filter to be enlarged by elongating the length of the filter loop.